With the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the religious situation in the mid 1500′s was an important background for the many witchcraft and sorcery trials that took place in Europe.
In Norway, a large number of women and men were executed for having dealt in witchcraft and magic. Witch hunts hit Northern Norway and Finnmark, very heavily. Here, the cases are characterized also by significant ethnic elements, since the processes were largely directed against the Sami.
In 1692, the Sami reindeer herdsman Anders Poulsen (Poala-Ande) was brought before the court in Vadsø, accused of witchcraft. Witchcraft was particularly done through his shaman drum – runebomme. Poulsen was an old man at this time – nearly one hundred years, according to himself.
The indictment alleged that Poulsen with his instrument had “practiced evil and blasphemic witchcraft”. With the drum, he called forth evil spirits. Each beat of the drum was thus a beat for Satan in Hell. The District Governor stated that Satan himself had done his work among the mountain Sami through the help of the runebomme. And Poulson was a sorcerer and idolater who should be burnt in flames.
Poulsen said in his own defense that he never used the drum for evil purposes, and described his knowledge as God’s Art and medical practice.
The court consisted of three Sami and eight Norwegians, including the local magistrate, who was the judge in the case. The judge claimed that Poulson undoubtedly was a sorcerer. “I consider his work to be idolatry and serious witchcraft, he has totally devoted himself to the Devil.” The final verdict was postponed pending an authoritative interpretation from Copenhagen, since the court was uncertain about the specific nature of the crime.
The case never came to court. Already the day after the judicial process, the old shaman was killed by several ax-strokes while he was asleep in a hut. The perpetrator claimed that Poulson deserved to die since he was a sorcerer. The court determined that the perpetrator was “insane” and did not know what he was doing when the murder was committed. He was only fined.
The case tells us something about cultural differences – about two cultures with different languages and world views, where communication based on mutual recognition and respect was impossible. There was the meeting between a hegemonic “elite culture” and an exotic aboriginal culture. The case acts also as an example of Christian demonization of non-Christian nature worship.

From the trial of Anders Poulsen (Poala-Ande), we hear how “the old Sami took his confiscated drum from the table, made the sign of the cross on both himself and the instrument and recited a silent prayer in Karelian (Finnish). With tears running down his cheeks and in the deepest affection, he then lifted the runebomme up and played on it so everyone could see the drum in practical use. He beat it with the hammer, and the cover danced up and down as a result of the motion he made with his hand and from the hard strokes on the drum head. Having drummed a while, he said that the gods could not decide if they would respond or not. The gods were skeptical that the invocation came from a “House of the Norwegians”. He shouted to his gods that they should not be afraid of the Norwegians. Even though he played in a Norwegian house, the Norwegians meant them no harm, he said, before he then continued to play. Eventually, he received a reply …”¹

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1 Rune Hagen: Harmløs Dissenter eller djevelsk Trollmann? Trolldomsprosessen mot samen Anders Poulsen i 1692. Historisk tidsskrift 81(2002) nr 2-3, pp 319-346 http://hdl.handle.net/10037/910